The document discusses empathy driven development, which relies on development teams making decisions based on empathy towards stakeholders. It emphasizes the need for teams to creatively self-organize to work around barriers isolating them from stakeholders. Common barriers include stakeholders being inaccessible, unvalidated assumptions about needs, and layers of proxies between stakeholders and teams. The document provides examples of how to develop empathy through activities like empathy mapping and observing stakeholders directly. It stresses applying principles of transparency, inspection and adaptation to improve stakeholder empathy over time.

1. 1© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
EMPATHY DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT
RESCUE VALUE FROM THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE OF SOFTWARE DELIVERY!

2. 2© 1993-2014 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved
About Me…
• Education:
 Bachelors in Computer Sc. & Engg.
 Masters in Entrepreneurship
• Certifications:
 PST (PSF, PSM, PSPO), PSE, PSM II, PSPO II, PSD I
 Evidence Based Management Consultant
 MBTI Certified Practitioner
 Certified in Advanced Conflict Resolution
 Certificate in Organizational Development
• Experience:
 Sr. Principal – Enterprise Agile Deployment, Sabre
 Founder & Org Whisperer – SmoothApps
 16+ years in SW Delivery, Consulting
 Siemens, HP, Avaya, Cisco, AT&T. among others
 Dev Background: C/C++, VC++, Win32 SDK, Oracle…

3. 3© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
•Relentless focus on
• Maximizing output - VELOCITY
• Minimizing cost - $ FOR SCRUM TEAMS
• Minimizing time - # OF SPRINTS
Challenge For Our Industry…

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Challenge For Our Industry…
•Value disappearing into…
Cost of Scrum Teams
Staff

5. 5© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
Cost Thinking vs Value Thinking
Let’s STOP getting more
efficient @ delivering this
& START getting
effective @ delivering this

6. 6© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
•Any examples from your experience…?
•Success stories / tips…?
COST THINKING vs VALUE THINKING

7. 7© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
Impediment
?
•But what blocks our teams…?

8. 8© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
A Common Impediment
?
•But what blocks our teams…?

9. 9© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
What Is Empathy…?

10. 10© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
Current State
• How empathetic is your team towards …?
• SPONSORS: Fund the Scrum Team
• END USERS: Use the increments
• END CUSTOMERS: Served by end users via the
increment
• COLLEAGUES: Impacted by the Scrum Team
• EMPLOYERS: Writing the pay-check
• COMMUNITY: In which the team works
• OTHER: …?
• Any examples….?
• How has it impacted the value delivered…?
• Are you satisfied…?

11. 11© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
An approach to developing software that relies on
team members making decisions based on empathy
towards impacted stakeholders.
This approach requires development teams to
creatively self-organize within the constraints of
their organizations, to work around the barriers
that isolate them from their stakeholders.
Empathy Driven Development is complementary
to Agile Software Delivery with Scrum and is key to
Scrum Activities and Events like Backlog
Management and Refining, Sprint Planning, Daily
Scrum and Sprint Review.
A Fresh Approach…
• Where would you inject
empathy into Scrum in
your organization? How?
• What are the top 3
barriers that might impede
this approach in your
organization?

12. 12© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
• Stakeholders Inaccessible to
Development Team
• Un-validated Assumptions about
Stakeholder needs
• Layers of Proxies between Stake-
holders and Development Team
• Distrust between Stakeholder
Proxies and Development Team
• Cynicism / Apathy towards
Stakeholders
• No time / money to connect with
stakeholders
Common Barriers To EDD…?

13. 13© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
• Empathy Map…
• Create a grid
• Flip-charts and tape
• With post-it’s, list
stakeholders
• For each stakeholder…
• ACCOUNTABILITY:
• MOST VALUABLE:
• MOST PAINFUL:
• 140 characters or less…!
• Review as a group
Getting Started…

14. 14© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
An Example – Medical SW
• Imagine you are part of a Scrum Team that
creates software used by Doctors to enter
patient records.
• How would you fill out this table….?

15. 15© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
An Example – Medical SW
Doctors
Nurses
Pharmacists
Patients
Hospital I.T.
Hospital Director
Other…?
Heal patient
Support Doctor
Right medicines
Get better
Support staff
Sustainable biz.
Intuitive, quick
Intuitive, quick
Accurate
Awesome care
Easy upgrade
Happy patients
More time on tool, less
time with patients
Poor 3rd party integration?
Irritated / frustrated doc
Tech support calls
High costs, poor NPS

16. 16© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
Desired Outcomes
•Good conversations
•Un-validated assumptions
•Head scratching
•Curiosity
•Action items to connect with stake-holders
•Many follow-up actions and conversations
•But most importantly…

17. 17© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
More Stakeholder Empathy…!

18. 18© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
Useful Pattern…
Dr. John Kotter
http://www.kotterinternational.com/about-us/principles/

19. 19© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
Possibilities…
• Developers to customer site…?
• Most influential / cynical…?
• Customers to developer sites…?
• No money…?
• Video customers using product
• Skype / GotoMeeting with
Webcam…?
• Self-organize…?
• Include in new-hire training / on-
boarding
• Must capture smiles and
frowns!

20. 20© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
•Apply Empiricism:
• TRANSPARENCY: Current state of stakeholder empathy
• INSPECTION: Is it where you would like it to be?
• ADAPTATION: Self-organize to make it better!
• Empathy Map
• Observe stakeholders – face to face / webcam
• Talk to them, talk to each other
• Walk in their shoes
• Figure it out…!
Call to Action…

21. 21© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
Learn More
https://www.vitalsmarts.com/influencer/

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• What was your most valuable
takeaway?
• What is one baby step you will
take in the next 30 days to
apply what you learned today?

23. 23© SmoothApps 2015 All rights reserved. www.smoothapps.com
Let’s Talk…
Ravi Verma
The Org Whisperer
smoothapps
smoothapps
orgwhisperer